© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
Bickel & Brewer attorneys rejoiced Thursday as they were awarded attorneys’ fees for winning a major Voting Rights Act case last year in which their clients prevailed against Farmers Branch.
Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas awarded four Bickel & Brewer attorneys $194,125 plus $75,000 in costs for their work in reforming voting rights for Hispanic citizens of Farmers Branch, Texas.
Plaintiffs originally requested that their Bickel & Brewer attorneys, who took the case pro bono, be awarded $325,000 in attorneys’ fees – an amount that was already voluntarily reduced from an original valued amount of $409,965, Thursday’s opinion says.
On Aug. 12, 2012, Judge Fitzwater ruled, “Hispanics in Farmers Branch have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice,” and ordered the City of Farmers Branch to submit a plan to redeem its Section 2 violations of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Before the decision, Farmers Branch used an at-large voting process that allowed the city’s political candidates to gather votes citywide. Hispanic voters argued this prevented minority candidates from being elected into office by voters within a specific district or precinct.
Farmers Branch changed its voting process after the decision to a single-member district election system, and on May 11, Ana Reyes became the first Hispanic ever elected to the Farmers Branch City Council. Her victory caught the attention of many national headlines.
The city appealed after the court ruled it to permanently implement its new proposed election plan, and also requested that the court abate a decision on the attorney’s fees and costs pending resolution of their pending appeal, according to Thursday’s opinion.
William A. Brewer III, the co-founder of Bickel & Brewer Storefront (the community service affiliate of the firm that handled this case), said the judge’s decision to award the fees Thursday sends an important message to communities that violate the Voting Rights Act.
“There is a price to be paid for denying the Latino community fair political opportunity,” Brewer said in a statement. “Compensating prevailing parties for their time incentivizes law firms to take on the most challenging fights for justice – at no cost to their clients.”
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